21 Little-Known Facts About…. Robert De Niro

Up Close & Personal

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01 Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. was born on August 17, 1943, in Manhattan, New York.

02 He is the son of two artists: painter Virginia Admiral and abstract expressionist Robert De Niro Sr.

03 Growing up in the Little Italy section of New York City, his nickname was “Bobby Milk” because he was so thin and as pale as milk.

04 He first discovered his love for acting at age 10 when he portrayed the Cowardly Lion in a local production of The Wizard of Oz.

05 De Niro quit his private high school to try to become an actor. He never graduated, though he did join Stella Adler’s acting school.

06 Although he is known as an Italian-American actor, De Niro is actually one quarter Italian. His father was of half Italian and half Irish descent. His mother was of Dutch, English, Irish, French, and German ancestry.

07 He and Martin Scorsese were brought up blocks apart in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, but never formally met when they were young.